Amendments through Political Consensus

A third, large group of amendments came about not from conflict but from a broad political consensus among parties that certain changes were needed. Many of these amendments date from after 1984, and their striking feature is that a good number of them were passed even during periods of coalition government, when no single party enjoyed a comfortable majority — showing that they were not just the product of one party's political strength.

The trend began with the anti-defection amendment (the 52nd Amendment), and continued with amendments such as the 61st, which brought down the minimum voting age from 21 to 18 years, and the 73rd and 74th Amendments, which gave constitutional status to rural and urban local self-government. During the same broad period, several amendments clarified and expanded the scope of reservations in jobs and education. After 1992-93, once an overall consensus had formed in the country on these reservation-related measures, amendments giving effect to them (the 77th, 81st and 82nd Amendments) were …